Our Living Room Plan

Since we have lived in this home, our living room has sat pretty much empty. We do have our secretary desk, ottoman and a chest of drawers, but there has never been any seating in the space. The kids loved using this room as an open play area and took full advantage of our vaulted ceilings for those high three pointers. Now that we have our basement finished and use that as the primary open play space, it’s time to refocus this room and plan for a seating area! The perks of waiting so long to decide on furniture, is that I have overthought this room for many years, have decided against some design trends and now have a plan to stick with! I decided to go with a grouping of four chairs, as opposed to a sofa. I have gone back and forth with this idea and I am now certain this is what I want to do!

This is the quick floor plan rendering I came up with for our living room. This is the first room off of the foyer, so it makes the initial impression of our home. With it’s high ceilings, I went with a dark brown, almost black paint color {Mink by Benjamin Moore}. I will stick with that wall color for now. This space also opens up to our dining room, so I want the decor to flow well from there. Here are the two spaces, as they are now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Images by Sarah Heppell Photography

We will take out the chest of drawers and table lamps and move that vignette to the dining room. This will free up some square footage and I will add two floor lamps to the back wall. That round mirror above the chest of drawers will be replaced with oversized art work. The small black accent table and lamp off of the foyer will relocate and be replaced with a leaning mirror. The more I see this four chair layout, the more I love it! I picture family game nights in this area and just time to sit and read for hours. Here are some of my favorite inspiration images…

Lauren Liess

Melanie Turner

Southern Living

I am not sure about my center table yet, but I know I want it to be round. I have settled on a chair… the Stocksund from IKEA in the blue and white stripe.

I like that you can select the leg finish, so I will go with black for contrast. I can’t wait to find four matching throw blankets and pillows to add to the chairs. Ooooo- maybe in a buffalo check or plaid!! I have been back and forth about using four chairs, as opposed to a sofa and small accent chairs. The truth is, we have sofas in our basement and family room, so I want to go a bit different in here. Also, these chairs have depth and width, so it can still be comfortable to curl up in these chairs. I will keep you posted as we move along in here. There needs to be some touch up painting first, so baby steps. But now that there’s a plan in writing- it feels more permanent!